Iss. #01
February 2019
LLAACGUUNNAA ...a zine
L A C U N A L A G U N A
Directed, edited, and written by Jake Mahr All images by Jake Mahr unless noted Printed in Barcelona, Catalunya Contact: Email Website Follow: @lacunalaguna on Instagram
All contents and material in this zine are protected under international anti-copyright law. We enourage you to copy, modify, distribute, and transmit material from this publication without prior permission. LACUNA LAGUNA is a zine about zines and zine research. Most sources and ideas will be duly cited. For questions regarding the material, please contact us via email. F0r more information about this publication and its making, please contact us via email or send us a message on Instragram.
LACUNA LAGUNA was founded in 2018 Š
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2019 LACUNA LAGUNA all rights unreserved
If you wish to cite this zine, please use the following citation: Mahr, J. (2019). LACUNA LAGUNA, 1(1), (zine).
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We have been trying to theorise identity as constituted, not outside but within representation; and hence of cinema, not as a second-order mirror held up to reflect what already exists, but as that form of representation which is able to constitute us as new kinds of subjects, and thereby enable us to discover places from which to speak. –Stuart Hall (1990, pp. 236–237). Though the sexual borderlands can be viewed as containing only non-binary sexualities such as bisexual and queer, in reality they touch on every sexual identity. Individuals of all sexualities react to the sexual borderlands, by crossing them, inhabiting them, fortifying against them, or denying them. In these actions the sexual borderland becomes an integral way of defining the sexual binary. –April Scarlette Callis (2014, p. 77) I’m aware of your gender being not-man/not-woman. There you are, fe-male with alluring complexity in your presentation to the world. –Urszula Dawkins (2000, p. 36)
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INTRODUCCIÒ Benvinguda, bienvenida, and welcome to LACUNA LAGUNA, a small zine publication that is both extraño and extranjero. This zine is coming to you desde Barcelona, and is written by an estadounidense who’s trying to get his docorat en comunicaciò. LACUNA LAGUNA is a zine (como una revista, a magazine, pero más chula) about the research of my doctoral thesis, which is about zines. So it’s a zine about zines and zine research. We’ll talk more about zines later... This doctorate I’m doing is set within the CritiCC (critical communication) research group at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF). Aquest grup de recerca is dedicated to analyzing los medios and communication through critical lenses that expose hegemonies and normative social structures, among other things. My project is tentatively titled: “Non-Binary Identities in Feminist Zines: Media Third Spaces and Oppositional Consciousness.” We’ll go over all those phrases and terms later as well... Lo que necesitas saber ahora is that I am making this zine about zines to: (1) share my research with you; (2) show you why zines are super guay; (3) practice articulating my research en una manera that’s similar to how zine authors communicate their thoughts and theories (rather than the way academics do); (4) mess with les definicions of what knowledge-production can look like. I am trying my best to create a trilingüe catalanspanish-english publication, so give me a damn break si tinc un error! (o mejor, email me any corrections so I can learn). Moltes gràcies for picking up this zine. Share it with your friends. Find it online. Follow it on instagram. Cite it in an essay. Write in its margins. Stuff it in your backpack. Cut it up. Make your own! ¡Hasta Pronto! Jake
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CONTENTS 3 Introduction 5 What’s A Zine? 6 A Zine Herstory 7 Identidades No Binarias 9 Mid-Issue Recap 11 El Tercer Espai 13 Oppositional Consciousness 15 Closing Remarks 16 Zines From the Sample
con the NA LAGUNA, empezamos In this primer issue of LACU Zines: inis Binary Identities in Fem t title of la meva recerca: “Nonat are Wh positional Consciousness.” Media Third Spaces and Op ce? spa d thir are zines? Dónde está el non-binary identities? What tas gun pre se ess? The answers to the What is oppositional consciousn n the l wil es my project. Following issu will serve as an introducciò to e com t tha as thodology, and neat ide dive deeper into the theory, me up during my research.
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W
H A
T’
S A Z I
N E ?
Zines (tu ho pronuncies com “zeen,” like a magaZINE) son publicaciones muy DIY in their aesthetic and in their ethics. Lo que quiero decir is that the whole idea behind zine culture is taking over the means of production of media and knowledge by simply just producing it yourself. Zines are usually print media, though algunas exist online. Existen en muchas formas, però generalment es veuen com revistes o llibres o fullets. Si quieres crear una zine: Fold some paper in half. Write/draw/cut and paste in it. Make it cheap, barato, with a photocopier and unas grapas. Make it accessible, colloquial.
Write it because you know it because you’ve lived it. Escríbelo porque lo sabes porque lo has vivido. Escriu perqué ho saps perqué ho has viscut. Zines are self-published and independent. They tend to have small, local distributions. They are about anything and everything. Punk music. Smoothie recipes. Archeology. Feminism. Artwork. Science Fiction. And they can be extremely personal, like a diary, but also anonymous. Todo depende de la “zinester,” the author of the zine.
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A
Z
I N
Since it is hard to strictly define zines, it’s also hard to stricly define their history.
E
La forma – the cheaply made, easily reproduced, personally opinionated booklet – és molt similar to the revolutionary pamphlets that arose in late 18th century.
HE
R
ST
The word “zine” itself probably comes from fanzines, publications that date back to the 19th century. Fanzines first began as amateur magazines that published amateur poetry, stories, and fiction. In the 1920s, la ciencia ficción – then thought of as a low-brow literature form de poca cultura – became a hot topic of fanzines. Since then, the media form has mostly been used to discuss and critique less-popular cultural phenomena (like horror films, punk music, and skateboarding) que no interesa a los medios mainstream.
O
R
Y
En los años ‘80 y ‘90, zines became una herramienta importante for feminists and civil rights activists. Women and girls of the RiotGrrrl movement – una crítica punk a les normes de gènere – used zines to discuss their personal lived experiences in relation to body image, sexuality, sexual assault, gender norms, and anger. Even though zines were perhaps at their most popular in the ‘80s and ‘90s, they are still made today by zinesters who are more connected than ever through the internet. Some zines have even become “e-zines,” published and distributed en línea. 6
I D E N T I D A D E S Venga, va...ahora sabes qué es una zine. Entonces, la segunda questión es: “¿qué son los identidades no binarios?” Think about an identity you have. Gender, for example. Now, many people believe there are two (i només dos) gèneres. Woman and man. Mujer y hombre. Dona i home. ¿Y tú qué piensas? In our society, we associate these identities with características femininas (dona) and características masculinas (home). Our ideas of what is “feminine” and what is “masculine” are social constructs. Sabemos que esto es verdad because what it means to be “masculí” and “femení” changes depending on the culture you are in. This idea that women are feminine and men are masculine is perpetuado through our social interactions (que aprendemos al observar a los demás), through the media, los medios, and through politics (en la forma de leyes y esas cosas). All of this means that we
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assume that women will be feminine (tranquilo, delicado, emocional), and men will be masculine (fuerte, inteligente, terco). Y eso es el binario. It leaves no room for donas who might actually be more “masculí” or homes who might actually be more “femení.” También, it doesn’t give a name to anyone who doesn’t identify with either of the características femininas or masculinas... or anyone who identifies con los dos... or anyone who feels feminine one day and masculine the next. These people have indentidades no binarios. Non-binary identities. Identities that don’t easily map onto an identity binary. They are either/or and/but neither/nor. If we are talking about gender, these individuals might use identifiers like “non-binary,” “genderfluid,” “agender,” “genderqueer,” or a number of other terms.
NO B I N A R I A S Género is not the only binario, though. Almost all of our identities are constructed into binaries. Gender (hombre/mujer), sexo (male/female), capacitat (abled/ disabled, or differently abled...Con todas estas identidades, hay personas que no existen en el binario. També, hi ha binaris that are multifacéticos. Sexualitat, per exemple. If you think about sexuality, an obvious binary might be straight/gay. Hetero/ homo. Identidades como bisexual y pansexual interrumpir la idea that you need to be one (hetero) or the other (homo). Sin embargo, identitats com bisexual i pansexual exist on a binary between monosexual (attracted to one gender) and plurisexual (attracted to multiple genders). Asexuality (la ausencia de atracción sexual) confuses this binary a bit, but also exists on a binari entre sexual i asexual. Entonces, hay binarios diferentes dentro
de algunas identidades. Still, there are non-binary identities within and without all of the binaries. In fact, if all of these binaries are just labels that we have constructed, then most of us exist somewhere off the binary. Nos suscribimos a estas etiquetas porque queremos pertenecer. We want to belong. But if we begin to realize these binaries, and to realize the identities that exist off these binaries, then we might begin to create communities, societies, and cultures that don’t seperate based on difference. We might actually begin to celebrate difference. Podríem començar a alliberar-nos. Algunas personas han empezado a imaginar este futuro. Y, más importante para mi proyecto, algunas personas han imaginado este futuro en las paginas de una zine. It’s this future, this celebration and representation of difference and non-binary identities, that is the center of my research. La pregunta: com representar millor les identidades no binàries.
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